Call me soft (a lot of people do), but having recently grovelled my way to the top of "Where Angels fear to Tread", I now have a very healthy respect for the route.
Hats off to the Gledhill brothers who led it in the 70's.
Given that I probably have only done two consecutive jam moves once in my climbing career, WAFTT was quite a step up. There must have been plenty of parties through the years that got lost, be-nighted, succumbed to the pain of jamming feet and rapped off etc, I'd love to hear the 'tales of woe' or triumph. Given the grade is a modest 17, all I can say is that it is/was bloody epic!
(and yes GFDonc, I did have a tablespoon of cement before I started)

Agreed! Started up the route as a three, was too slow and rapped off. Started again in a pair the next day, found the so-called crux easy enough but the upper pitches horrendously difficult. It was embarrassing pulling on gear during the flaring-off-widthy pitch that was apparently grade 16. Also got very lost on the top out and climbed a lot of moss, grass and trees. Epic is right.

I've done it three times (sucker for punishment). Last time I thought that I'd sorted it all out and had set up the lead rotations so I didn't have to lead that horrible grade 16 offwidth pitch near the top (the last real pitch before it comes scrambly). Unfortunately, the guy I was planning on swinging leads with informed me after he'd followed the first pitch that there was no way he was leading anything!

It's pretty shite for a 3 star route, but it's still a fun day out. The arete to the left of the route looks awesome though (Pearly gates I think it's called), but I've never got around to getting on it.

When I did it my climbing partner tore a hole in his shoe, about the size of a 50 cent piece, at the ball of of his big toe. He was laughing/howling in pain on lead which was pretty interesting to watch.

Here he is leading up through the overlap, about to transition to the next crack.

On 21/11/2012 Will_P wrote:>Some tales of triumph would be nice, please. Planning to do this in the>1st week of Jan, so don't psych me (or my partner, who fortunately rarely>reads this forum) out.

Get on it Mr Powers!

It's character building if nothing else. Just take as many cams as you own in the 2 - 4 camelot range and you'll be fine. Some medium wires for the short thinnish section up to the ledge after 4 or 5 pitches.

It's mostly pretty easy climbing. The first pitch is probably the crux, and there's the thin bit mentioned above (which is only a couple of metres long). And there's the horrible short offwidthy bit just above that (get your mate to lead that pitch). Other than those 3 bits it's mostly 14-15ish hand jamming in the back of a trench.

It's got potential to be bloody hot in January as it's in sun for most of the day, so either get up super early and move fast, or start late and move fast, or pack lots of water!

On 21/11/2012 Will_P wrote:>Some tales of triumph would be nice, please. Planning to do this in the>1st week of Jan, ...

Nah, sorry. I started up it early Dec 31st 1994, had scoped out the approach access and finish the day before, even had Fantini give us exit beta. First pitch seemed to be the crux, though there is at least two variant starts iirc.

Started as a three, one backed off after first pitch, me and mate did a couple more but realised we were too slow after the cluster lowering the 3rd (now his wife), so we bailed. I think we would have struggled higher up anyway.

Hottest I've even been on a route anywhere, like being tied down under a gas grill.

I concur with Cam-a-lot McKenzie
Take as many 4 camelots as you can lay your hands on.
You would not want to be on WAFTT on a hot day - you'll get fried
Take heaps of water - we went through 3L between two of us, and that was on a mild day.
Tape your hands and more importantly your ankles (to avoid the cheese grater effect)
Get an early start - it took us ~1hr from Lake Catani, Chalet car park, and to walk in.
Practice hugging fridges - good practice for the "offwidthy bit"

On 21/11/2012 ajfclark wrote:>Definitely worth scoping both the walk in and the exit out of Burston's>Crevasse ahead of time. While you're scoping the exit it might be worth>stashing a few litres of water down there too.

Summer wooses!

On 21/11/2012 superstu wrote:
Roddy you up for more Mackey Slab action in the week before chrissy?

Yeah, but I reckon you ought to do your intended line without bolts!
Grade 15 slab is entry status, and a 50 metre runout is character building!!!
☺

On 21/11/2012 Superstu wrote:>On 21/11/2012 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:>>Yeah, but I reckon you ought to do your intended line without bolts!>>Grade 15 slab is entry status, and a 50 metre runout is character building!!!>>☺>>Ah, so you have arranged us to be heli coptered into the start then ?>
I've got 4 weeks to get my fitness level up to a point that will match yours, bring it on ... heliornocopter!
☺

On 21/11/2012 ajfclark wrote:>When I did it my climbing partner tore a hole in his shoe, about the size>of a 50 cent piece, at the ball of of his big toe. He was laughing/howling>in pain on lead which was pretty interesting to watch.>>Here he is leading up through the overlap, about to transition to the>next crack.

+1 on dreading the parallel offwidths section just before the scrambling at the top; it makes the rest of the climb seem quite civilized in comparison.

The first time I did it I cunningly made sure Bones got to that lead that pitch (not entirely true... neither of us had done the climb before or had any idea of the horror that was coming).

I went to do Angels again just last weekend making it clear to my climbing partner that they were going to lead that pitch. In the event we didn't even make it to the base of the climb as they were feeling sick on the approach (well, that was their story, anyway, but they did go a funny color and burp a lot to back it up).

Not sure that counts as an epic, but the climb certainly has a sense of gravitas well in excess of its grade! Still, I'm up for doing it again.

I was privileged to climb this route in Dec 2004 or Jan 2005 along with Geoff G and Kev (who was along for the ride and seconded/thirded all pitches). It was 40 years almost to the day after G's FA.

We went down nice and early (8ish?) as we wanted to catch Lee Cossey engaged in (successfully) freeing Ozy that day. We were finished and back in the car park by 11.30 am, but could have done it quicker as a 2 and if we weren't hanging out and spectating across the gorge on Lee's efforts.

Tips/comments:

* Geoff knew the route and the way down like the back of his hand, which made the approach hassle-free. When I went back to Mt Buffalo in 2010 I was really surprised at how much the plateau had changed since the bushfires of 2006. I would guess that the track down is now much less defined and I have heard of people losing their way. You might want to scope out the approach before the big day.

* Get an early start, you want to do the route in the relative cool of the morning.

* We did the route on a 60m rope as 4 x 50m+ pitches. I would definitely do it like that for speed and because there are good belays coming up to the end of each rope length. Scramble off at the top.

* Geoff very generously gave me pitches 1 and 3 which are the pearlers. Pitches 2 and 4 are not quite as good (if you want to 'bags' the best pitches from your mate).

* We didn't take too much gear (something like 2 x gold camalots, 2 x 3 camalots and 1 x 3.5 camalot, a few smaller cams and a rack of nuts??) Medium cams fit in the back of the crack and I certainly didn't feel under-gunned. You probably only need one nut on the route for the finger crack move (crux) on p3.

The route is unique, an absolute classic - a must-do for anyone. I am grateful to have had such a great day out doing it, hope you enjoy it as much.

ditto on previous post by nick. did it with geoff g one day in november years ago. 4 long pitches. if you know your partner won't fall following long first pitch, you can get by without any big cams. i had one small cam and a hip bar belaying geoff up the first 40+ meters. the weird off width move at the start of the last long pitch was the crux for me. the third long pitch was brilliant, nice runout, good moves. would definitely do the climb multiple times if i lived in oz. just wear a long sleeve shirt, long pants, and don't rush the moves.